The field of customer experience management is increasingly growing as companies and other types of organizations look to professionals to ensure that customer satisfaction exceeds goals and expectations. In order to best serve customers, managers and other customer experience professionals look to improve and build relationships to gain a competitive edge.
Master’s Degree in Management of Customer Experience Overview
Most programs that are focused on management of customer experience are specializations at the graduate level with a business or business administration degree program. The general business courses are helpful for gaining an understanding of operations and the skills that will be needed to make sure customers are satisfied while still ensuring that an organization is profitable and successful, focusing much more on the ability to manage people and projects. Common courses in a business graduate program include managerial accounting, statistics, managerial finance, organizational behavior, leadership techniques, marketing, and business ethics.
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A specialization within the field of customer experience requires graduate students to complete courses that are much more concentrated in developing skills specifically for issues and situations in which a consumer audience is involved in a process. Courses that are likely to be completed include customer experience principles, customer experience management applications, brand management, and data analytics.
Management in Customer Experience Careers
Professionals who are able to see a client’s needs and respond appropriately are in high-demand as consumers continue to search for companies and organizations that deliver results as well as connection and relationships. This is true in all types of industries, including health care, utilities, car manufacturers, restaurants, educational institutions, non-profit organizations, and more. A customer experience manager ultimately be responsible for ensuring the customers come back to a company or organization for a product or service, creating a culture where employees are focused on delivering the best in customer satisfaction.
With a master’s degree in business administration with a concentration in management of customer experience, there are a number of possible career paths a graduate might consider pursuing. Some positions in non-profit, government, and other similar organizations are likely to include customer advocacy director, community manager, and advocacy director. Positions in corporate or for-profit organizations include positions for director of customer service, executive director of customer experience, customer analytics professional, sales director, and client manager.
Professionals in this field might also focus more on products, pursuing positions as a product integration executive, product marketing analysis technician, or senior market research analyst. Professionals in these positions are likely to do a lot of testing, observing, evaluating, and analyzing to determine consumer and client trends to make recommendations for products.
Essentially, any position that has any contact with a customer can be a future career for a graduate with a management specialization focused on customer experience. More information on careers in management of customer experience can be found at the Customer Experience Professionals Association website.
From a customer service representative to the executive director of marketing, the needs, likes, and satisfaction of clients and customers is paramount. Completing a graduate degree with a concentration in customer experience management will help future professionals build skills, knowledge, and understanding of how to best align business operations to make for happy customers.